- Cuts can lead to 20 fte less per September 1, 2017.
- Unit Participation Council fears that the thinking is done by ‘the economy’ instead of a vision.
Division Human Movement and Education was imposed with another heavy cut command. At the end of November the audit committee of the Supervisory Board proclaimed not to be satisfied with the suggested budget plan for 2017. In addition, the Executive Board suggested a revision of the budget plan to the Central Participation Council, in which the operation deficit of 2017 of division Human Movement and Education is brought back from 2,8 million to 2,1 million.
The extra cut should be reached through extra interventions or speeding up of planned interventions. One suggestion is bringing back the research with around one third. In the original budget plan a decrease of 14 ftes was mentioned, to be realised in the second half of 2017. In the youngest suggestions, which is partially based on an increasing contraction of the research, a decrease of 20 ftes is mentioned. A thorough plan should clear up the situation in the coming few weeks.
The Unit Participation Council of Human Movement and Education says they are worried because they miss reasoning and “the ‘economy’ seems to determine the thinking, instead of a vision.” They also wonder “whether so many cuts in such a short period of time will have influence on the quality of education and will drive up the work pressure for the employees.”
Apart from Human Movement and Education, the division Healthcare and Social Work also struggles with a large operation deficit of over a million. However, according to director Ineke van der Wal the problems in her division are of no comparison to the dilemmas her colleague-director Bert Meijer is facing. She dares to predict that Healthcare and Social Work will not lose any more in September: “We do not really have a shortage at this moment; everything is positive, however, there are still two big operations running, the change to one study programme Social Work and Nursing 2020. These two ask for extra investments.” Aside from that, the increase of the number of students at nursing (the number of students doubled in two years’ time) brought temporary problems: “The financing is always two years behind; you have to pre-finance this. This also contributed to the shortage. But we will gain on that again in the coming year.” However, shortages is and always will be incredibly difficult and unpleasant, she emphasizes: “It is always difficult – no matter how hard you work, the shortages are not easily erased. When it comes down to that, I have consideration for Bert. He has a heavy job to do!” (MH)
